I'm going to enter a German Pils in a competition that's in 10 days. It's currently lagering @35F and I plan to force carbonate sometime next week. I would have preferred to just wait longer with the lagering, but the comp is pushing me to rush this.

Its still a little hazy. I was thinking of add some finings.

Any suggestions on which ones to use? Am I cutting it a little too close? Should I not be bother trying something new for a beer I want feedback?

You can fine if you wish. I prefer isinglass, but if you don't have a source, gelatin works well enough. Dissolve the gelatin in a cup of very hot water and stir into the beer about 48 hours before bottling or kegging. Then you will want to rack the beer carefully into a bottling bucket or serving keg, trying to leave as much sediment as possible in the bottom of the original vessel.

The late Greg Noonan's rule of thumb for lagering pale lagers is three to seven days per each 2 degrees Plato (a degree Plato is just about 4 gravity points) of original wort gravity. Therefore a 12 degree Plato (1.048 O.G.) beer would be lagered for 18 to 42 days.

Force carb it with the finings in it now. Then let it lay on its side for a week. On its side, the finings only have to fall about a third of the way. Carefully transfer to another keg without moving it.

Dan, can you explain that last step? The diptubes on my kegs all go to the deepest part of the keg, which is the concave center, so transfering from a keg on its side would leave half the beer in the keg, wouldn't it?

I have done what Todd wants to do. Add the gelatin now, but do it in a glass carboy, in a 32°F fridge. Then you can watch the beer clear. It is helpful to give it a little swirl every day to knock down the stuff that seems to cling to the glass carboy wall, in a strange sort of static electricity way. It should clear up in about 3 days, then be ready to rack.